She’s got mail

In these days of e-mails and SMSes, West Bengal CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee writes letters to Mamata Banerjee, asking her for a dialogue”.

In these days of e-mails and SMSes, isn’t it nice to know that there’s a Chief Minister who still writes letters? It had to be

bhadralok

, intellectual and admirer of Marquez, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee whose epistolary talent has now come out in the open. In a frankly frank interview in this newspaper,Bhattacharjee let it be known that he had written at least six letters to his bête noire, Trinamool Congress and main Opposition leader Mamata Banerjee, asking her to discuss and “try a dialogue”.

The nature of the language in the letters that arrived at Banerjee’s doorstep is not known to the public at large. But one can guess that the author of Chena Phooler Gandha (The Fragrance of Known Flowers), a collection of poems written for the stage won’t write anything but tender words of endearing entreatment to the author of a poem that starts, “Somnath speaker/ Congress sticker/ They are all together/ Is it a get-together?” (We’re not kidding.) Just to drive home the point about how special Banerjee is to him, both as a political leader as well as a receiver of his letters, the West Bengal Chief Minister let it be known that he had not written six letters to any of his friends “boy or girlfriends” in his college days.

So what will Banerjee’s response be? Will she simply tuck away those letters that ask her, plead her, implore her to discuss matters about SEZs and land acquisition in West Bengal under her pillow? Or will she one day finally take out her pen, bite its end, smile to nobody in particular after twirling her sari end and start, “Dear Buddha...” cross that out and start again, “My dear Buddha...”